1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a fault monitoring method for a commodity management radio communicating apparatus, a storage medium for string a fault monitoring program and the fault monitoring program for automatically displaying a fault in a radio communication section in a portable radio communication terminal used for the commodity management radio communicating apparatus.
The present application claims priority of Japanese Patent Application No. 2000-001114 filed on Jan. 6, 2000, which is hereby incorporated by reference.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a commodity management radio communicating system used in a convenience store or a like, a radio communication base station is connected to an inventory controller connected to a plurality of POS (Point Of Sale) terminals, radio communication signals are received and transmitted from a plurality of radio communication terminals held by monitoring persons of the radio communication base station to communicate information such as kinds and number of commodities. With this system, the inventory controller is capable of executing processes such as commodity inventory management, inventory-counting and item-checking.
FIG. 3 shows a general configuration of the commodity management radio communicating system. An inventory controller 1 is connected with a plurality of POS terminals 2 and is connected with a radio communication base station 3. The radio communication base station is provided with an antenna. Also, the inventory controller 1 radio-communicates with a plurality of portable radio communication terminals 4. Further, the inventory controller 1 controls a printer 5 to print out process results such as commodity inventory management, inventory-counting and item-checking and receives and transmits various information from/to a central host machine (not shown) via a line 6.
FIG. 4 is an example of the conventional portable radio communication terminal 4. The portable radio communication terminal 4 is mainly provided with a radio communication section 11, a control section 12, a CPU (Central Processing Unit) 13, a memory section 14 and a battery 15. Also, the control section 12 is provided with a key switch 12A and a display section 12B.
The radio communication section 11 receives and transmits radio communication signals from/to the radio communication base station 3 via the antenna. The control section 12 receives a control signal from the radio communication base station 3 via the radio communication section 11 and transmits various data and a control signal to the radio communication base station 3 via the antenna. The key switch 12A is provided with a plurality of keys such as numerals, alphabet characters and various symbols and used to input various data such as kinds, a number and a distinction of stocking or going out concerning commodities to the control section 12. The display 12B displays data for display output from the control section 12 using characters, numerals, symbols or a like. The CPU 13 controls receiving-transmission of radio communication signals in the radio communication section 11 and executes processes such as generating of various data in the control section 12 using a program and data stored in the memory section 14. The memory section 14 stores programs basically needed to operate the CPU 13, namely, OS (Operating System), and various application programs. The battery 15 supplies power needed to operate each section in the portable radio communication terminal 4.
Next, explanations will be given of an operation of the conventional commodity management radio communicating apparatus with reference to FIG. 3 and FIG. 4.
A specific portable radio communication terminal 4 receives a control signal in the radio communication channel from the radio communication base station 3, executes an operation (carrier sense) for checking whether a carrier wave from another portable radio communication terminal 4 is transmitted or not, and recognizes that no portable radio communication terminal 4 radio-communicates. Then, the specific portable radio communication terminal 4 establishes a communication procedure (protocol) of a radio communicating line and then transmits data to the radio communication base station 3.
The radio communication base station 3 functions as a bridge apparatus, analyzes received data from the inventory controller 1 and transmits data in accordance with a radio communication protocol suitable to the portable radio communication terminal 4. Also, received data from the portable radio communication terminal 4 is transmitted to the inventory controller 1 in inverse order.
The inventory controller 1 is a controlling apparatus including a keyboard, a display section and a memorizing section (not shown) and is connected to the central host machine (not shown) via the line 6. The inventory controller 1 receives emails and data from the central host machine, transmits sales data obtained from the POS terminals 2 to the central host machine, transmits price data to the POS terminals 2, manages working hours of employees and executes other functions or a like. The printer 5 is connected to the inventory controller 1 and used to print out emails, working daily reports of employees.
As described above, in the commodity management radio communicating system, the inventory controller 1 and the portable radio communication terminals are connected by radio communication lines via the radio communication base station 3, it is possible to inquire about inventory and to execute processes such as inventory counting via the portable radio communication terminal 4 though a monitoring person is not present at any place in a store.
Then, in the portable radio communication terminal 4, when a radio communication error occurs or a problem occurs in that it takes a longer time for a process than usual or like, a maintenance person can judge whether there is a fault in the portable radio communication terminal 4 or not by carrying out a radio communication test. For an example of the radio communication test, a test program is loaded into a specific portable radio communication terminal 4 having a problem and the specific portable radio communication terminal 4 is placed in a test mode, and then a radio loop-back test for the radio communication test of the specific portable radio communication terminal 4 is started. In accordance with results of the radio loop back test, it is judged whether the portable radio communication terminal 4 has the fault or not.
However, in a conventional fault monitoring method for the commodity management radio communicating apparatus, there is a problem in that a user can not carry out the radio communication test by oneself and only the maintenance person can carry out operations in order to move the radio communication base station into test mode, for example, by removing an apparatus case in the radio communication base station and by turning ON power while pushing a test mode switch or by removing an interface cable and then turning ON power.
Also, in the conventional fault monitoring method for the commodity management radio communicating apparatus, there is another problem in that the radio communication test can not be carried out while the commodity management system operates.
It happens because application software in the portable radio communication terminal is not configured so as to be capable of carrying out the radio communication test while operating and an interception is given to the radio communication in operating though the application software is merely modified so as to carry out the radio communication test.